Chapter 15: Secrets
James and Lily avoided each other after that night in her room. Karen didn't say anything about it, but was always giving them both looks. Sirius asked about it a couple of times, but after a while gave up. Remus seemed oblivious to the awkward state between Lily and James. When Peter came over he just tried to ignore it and talk loudly to Sirius. Every time James would walk into the room, Lily would make an excuse to leave and vise versa.
"First Order meeting of the new year," Sirius said, jovially. "Ready to go?"
"Almost," Karen called from her room.
"Coming!" Lily said walking down the stairs.
"You excited?" Sirius asked. "You know, Dorcas hasn't seen you in 6 months."
"5 and a half and yeah, I am," Lily replied. "It's going to feel good to see them all again."
"Well, I'm sure they will all be happy to see you," Sirius said.
"Ok what did I miss?" Karen asked walking down the stairs while putting some earrings in her ear.
"Nothing much," Lily said. "Where's James?"
"Probably in the kitchen," Karen said.
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Sirius said sarcastically.
"You want me to go get him?" Karen asked.
"No, but we're going to be late if he doesn't hurry up," Lily said.
"Relax, Evans, we have all the time we need," Sirius said plopping down on the couch.
"Says the guy who's late to everything," Karen retorted. Sirius just glared at her.
"Are you guys ready?" James asked walking out of the kitchen.
"Yes, we've been ready," Karen said.
"Sorry, I was hungry," he supplied.
"You're worse than Sirius," Karen mumbled.
"Hey!" Sirius protested.
"You can continue your petty argument when we get there," Lily said.
"When it's about food it's not petty," Sirius said.
"Where's the safe house at?" Lily asked, changing the subject.
"Until they can find a stable place we're meeting at Alice and Frank's," Karen told her.
"That's means I get to see them!" Lily squealed.
"That's my ear," Sirius said.
"Sorry," Lily said. "Let's go!"
They Apparated to Alice and Frank's house. Lily followed the others up the steps. She hadn't seen her friends in 5 months. She wondered if they would be mad at her for leaving. Did they even know why she left? James or Sirius probably told them or something.
"Alice! Frank!" Karen yelled. "We're here!"
Alice quickly rushed into the room. "Karen!" she exclaimed, pulling the younger girl into a hug. "James! Sirius!"
"Be careful, Al, you might choke us," Sirius said.
"Oh, shut up," Alice said, hitting his arm playfully.
"Hey, Al," Lily said tentatively.
"Lily!" Alice screeched before throwing her arms around Lily in a bone crushing hug.
"It's good to see you again," Lily said hugging her back.
"We all missed you so much!" Alice said. "Without you around no one was here to keep James in line."
"Hey!" James protested. "That's not always a bad thing."
"I'm sure Karen is more than capable of keeping both Sirius and James in line," Lily said.
"You're right, I am!" Karen said, pulling off her coat.
"See?" Lily said.
"Well, we still missed you," Alice said. "Come on, I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you." Alice led Lily into a pretty good-sized kitchen where they were about twenty people standing around chatting.
"Lily!" she heard someone call. Lily turned around and saw Dorcas Meadows making her way through the crowd to her. Dorcas was one of the bravest girls in Lily's year. She was always standing up to people when she thought they were wrong. She never backed down from a fight. She was a good student too. There wasn't a mean bone in her body. Of course, if you were looking for a fight she would give it to you.
Dorcas pulled Lily into a hug. Lily hugged her back, glad to be with her friends again. "Lils!" she heard a male voice say. She pulled away from Dorcas and hugged Frank. "It's good to see you again!"
"You too, Frank!" Lily said, smiling.
"The meeting's about to start," Alice said. "You can sit next to me."
"But I want her to sit next to me!" Dorcas whined.
"You can both sit next to me," Lily said. "Sweet Merlin, it's like you haven't seen me in years."
"Well that's what it feels like," Alice mumbled.
They took their seats and waited for Dumbledore to speak. "Welcome everyone!" he said as if they were all at Hogwarts again. "It's good to see you all back. Now down to business. The Dark Lord is gaining followers. He is trying to make the giants a part of his army. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this as of now. I suggest you use a Fidelius Charm for extra protection. Make sure you can trust the person who is your Secret Keeper. That is all for this week." Dumbledore smiled with that same old twinkle in his eye.
Lily smiled at him and walked over to where he stood. "Hello, sir," she said.
"Ah, I see you're back," Dumbledore said smiling.
"Yes, and glad to be," she replied.
"Well as long as you're here we might as well talk over what happened while you were away," he said.
"Of course, sir," she said. "But...could we go somewhere more private?"
"Of course," he said and lead her away to a back room.
"Where do you think they're going?" Sirius asked James, nodding to Lily and Dumbledore.
"I don't know," he replied. "She probably just wants to talk to an old teacher."
"I don't think so, mate," Sirius said.
"What are you two talking about?" Karen asked turning to the boys.
"Lily went to talk with Dumbledore," Sirius said.
"Why is that so interesting?" Karen asked.
"Because...because...it just is," Sirius said.
"Basically, he is just being nosy," James said.
"I'm sure it's nothing," Karen said. "See here she comes, you can ask her now."
"Fine I will," Sirius said.
"Are you guys ready to go?" Lily asked smiling.
"What were you talking to Dumbledore about?" Sirius asked.
"You know, just catching up," Lily replied.
"See, I was right," Karen said.
"You're lying," James said.
"Excuse me?" Lily said.
"Lily, I've known you long enough to know when you're lying and when you're telling the truth," James replied. "You were never a very good liar, anyway." Lily glared at him, menacingly.
"Then what were you talking about?" Karen asked.
"That is none of your business," Lily retorted.
"I'm your best friend!" Karen protested.
"And you'll tell Sirius as soon as I tell you and we all know that if Sirius knows then the whole world knows," Lily said.
"Hey!" Sirius said.
"What did he want?" James asked.
"I'm not telling you," Lily said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Just tell us and we'll leave you alone," Sirius said.
"Don't you trust us?" James asked.
"Of course, I trust you," Lily replied. "I just don't think you're going to like the answer."
"All the more reason to tell us and get it over with," Karen said. "Besides I won't get mad at you."
"Yeah, sure," Lily said rolling her eyes.
"What did he want?" James asked again.
Lily sighed, knowing she would have to tell them sooner or later. "It was about a mission," she started. "You remember when I told you I was out looking for Severus? You know how I was gone for five months? I wasn't looking for him the whole time. I only looked for him for a month before realizing that finding him would be impossible unless he wanted to be found. I went to talk to Dumbledore. He suggested that I get away. Get away and think. He sent me on a mission to find scout out Death Eater camps. I did as he asked."
Sirius' and Karen's mouths had fallen open and they were staring at Lily as if she had gone crazy. James, however, was glaring at her. "And you couldn't have told us this because?" he asked.
"Because I couldn't just come by your house and say 'Hey I'm done searching for best friend but I'm leaving again in a few days and I might die'. Now could I?" she replied.
"You could have died!" James whispered harshly. "You could have died and we would never have seen you again!"
"Sometimes war requires some people to die for the peace we all seek," she said.
"I don't care what a bloody war requires!" James said. "They could have done a whole lot worst than torture you!"
"I can take care of myself, thanks," Lily replied.
"Lily, you should have told us," Karen said, finally recovering from her shock. "We're your friends."
"It would have put you in danger if the Death Eaters found out I was spying on them," Lily hissed. "They would have come after you."
"That's a chance we are all willing to take," Karen replied.
"Well-"
Suddenly an owl flew in and landed on the table. It looked at Lily with inquiring eyes. "Oh! What now?!" Lily asked grabbing the letter. Her face went white after reading it.